Financier Marc Rich dies in Switzerland

GENEVA -- Marc Rich, the trader known as the "King of Commodities" who was pardoned in 2001 by President Bill Clinton just hours before he left office, has died in Switzerland. He was 78.

Rich's Israel-based spokesman Avner Azulay says Rich died Wednesday and will be buried in Israel on Thursday.

Rich fled the United States to Switzerland in 1983 after being indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury on more than 50 counts of fraud, racketeering, trading with Iran during the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis and evading more than $48 million in income taxes.

Rich remained on the FBI's Most Wanted List until January 2001 when Clinton granted him a pardon, unleashing a political firestorm.